Hulu scores another win, grabs exclusive rights to AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead

By Steve Smith April 29, 2015

Walking Dead Zombies — Gene Page/AMC

Underdog streaming service, Hulu, is starting to make some major strides in competing with Netflix. Hot off the heels of the announcement that the company has secured the rights to stream the entire Seinfeld catalog in a multi-million dollar deal, the company announced another promising acquistion with AMC Networks for the exclusive rights to stream the forthcoming spinoff of The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead.

“AMC Networks has an incredible reputation and track record in producing captivating storytelling across a variety of genres for true connoisseurs of television,” said Mike Hopkins, Chief Executive Officer at Hulu. “This huge partnership guarantees that Hulu viewers will soon be able to enjoy the newest slate of premium programming from some of the top cable networks.”

The multi-year deal also comes with the rights to stream new and upcoming projects from IFC, BBC AMERICA, SundanceTV and WE tv. “We believe in the combination of compelling content and technology to engage audiences and deliver viewers back to the linear television experience,” said Ed Carroll, Chief Operating Officer of AMC Networks.

Fear the Walking Dead is the hotly anticipated companion show to the immensely popular series, The Walking Dead. It takes place in the same universe (zombie-verse?) as The Walking Dead but is set to begin earlier in the zombie apocalypse, is based in Los Angeles. Kim Dickens (Gone Girl, Sons of Anarchy), Cliff Curtis (Missing, Live Free or Die Hard), Frank Dillane (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) and Alycia Debnam Carey (The 100) are slated to star.

To say that Hulu is stepping up to the plate in a big way might be an understatement. Hulu announced earlier this week that the service is teaming with Cablevision to bundle the streaming site in the provider’s customers, including a deal that could see the app integrated into Cablevision set-top boxes. Hulu also nabbed the exclusive rights to select content from Cartoon Network, Adultswim, TBS, and TNT a few days ago.

Fear the Walking Dead premieres late this summer.

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